Rings - check!

So CT and I went wedding ring shopping on Saturday and we ordered both of our rings! We went to Spence first. I had looked up the price of the ring I wanted on BlueNile just to have a price comparison in my head. I wanted platinum, comfort fit, 3mm wide plain band. The same ring at Spence was pretty close to the same price, so we decided to order it from Spence. It will take about 3 weeks to come in.

Oh, and if any of you are curious about the whole white gold vs platinum discussion, to prevent white gold from discolouration, it needs to have the plating replaced about every year or so. There’s something I didn’t know.

We then went to the Oshawa Centre to get the ring that CT had picked out. They had since sold the one they had there before, but he knew which one it was, so they looked it up in their book and we ordered one. It will also take about 3 weeks to come in.

I am so glad to have that checked off the list! One more thing done. Still lots more to do, but we’re slowly getting there. Still 131 days to go. It’s getting closer! Yay!

TGIF

What a foggy, rainy day out there. Gross.

So glad it’s Friday! I’ve been really tired this week, I don’t really know why, I have been getting the same amount of sleep I get in any other week. And I’ve been really hungry lately, not a good combination. I only have 20 flex points left to get me through until Monday. Yikes! I have a feeling my Monday weigh-in isn’t going to go so well. Nuts. I’ll try to get as much exercise as I can in on the weekend, which will help.

Tomorrow, CT and I are going to look for wedding bands. We’re going to go to the same place he got my engagement ring (Spence Diamonds) and see what their price is for a platinum wedding band. I found one that I like on BlueNile.ca, so I will use that as a price comparison. I have a feeling BlueNile will be cheaper, so we may get it from there. I have heard good things about that website, I have a friend whose engagement and wedding rings are from there. If CT doesn’t find anything that he likes better than the one he already has picked out, then we’re going to stop in Oshawa and order the one he picked out a few months ago. That’s the one he wants, so at least one of us has already decided ;) I hope that my the end of the weekend, we will have both our wedding rings ordered.

We’re also working on the father/daughter and mother/son dance thing. I think we decided to have that as one dance. My dad is not much of a dancer, so I think that would be much less stressful if the 4 of us are dancing instead of just 2. So, now we just have to find a song. I have a few ideas, so we’ll have to listen to them and hopefully one will jump out at us.

Oh, and I got my bonus today! Which is great! The only sucky part is the stupid government took 48% of it away in taxes. That’s ridiculous!!!!

Free lunch!

Today is Administrative Professionals Day, and since the 3 managers of my company are out of the office today, I am next time line; therefore, I get to take our Admin Assistant out for lunch. I’ve known her for years, long before she started working here. I’m sure we’ll have a great time. And of course I’m going to use my company credit card to pay for it. Sweet!

Hmmm, what else. I’m starting to get back on the wedding planning train after taking a few weeks off. Seems I go in waves of planning and then take some time off. Next on my list is: shopping for wedding rings (which CT and I are doing on Saturday), find shoes for the wedding (which mom and I are going shopping for on May 5th), and start working on the reception cards. I am aiming for the invitations to go out mid to late June, and nej and I have made the invitations already, but I also need to include a card which gives the details on the reception (time, location, map of how to get there, and indicate that guests can stay over in the lodge the night of the wedding if they wish and how to book a room). I also need to meet with the ceremony musician and dj sometime in the next several weeks. That’s a lot to pack in, so I guess I’ll take it one task at a time.

Does anyone have any opinions on a father/daughter and mother/son dance? Do people still do those? My dad is not much of a dancer, but I’m sure he would dance with me. I was thinking that maybe we could combine those two so that it would be me and my dad dancing as well as CT and his mom dancing, but is that totally tacky? Any ideas?

Monday again, sheesh.

I had a good weekend, but like most weekends, it went by way too quickly. And now I’m back at work…boring! The good news is that my grandmother is taking me (and my brother, maybe both brothers) out to Red Lobster for dinner… YUM! And she specifically told us we can get lobster (which I normally wouldn’t order when someone else is paying since it’s pricey). I haven’t had lobster in ages, so this should be yummy!

Other than that, this coming week should be a pretty quiet one. I’m thinking this weekend, CT and I should look a few more places for wedding rings and hopefully order rings if we find ones we like. CT already has one picked out, I guess it’s just me who needs to find one! I’m just torn over whether to get white gold or platinum. My engagement ring is platinum, so I kind of wanted my wedding ring to match in terms of type of metal. But white gold would be way less expensive. I guess we’ll get a price on both and make a decision then.

I just found out today that we will be getting bonuses soon at work, so I will definitely put that towards wedding expenses. It seems that when I get really stressed about money, something I wasn’t expecting happens. Like when I was really stressed about Smokey’s vet bills, a week later I did my tax return and my refund was within $20 of Smokey’s vet bills. And yesterday I was getting stressed thinking of how we’re going to pay for the rest of the wedding/honeymoon costs, and my boss tells me today that we’ll be getting our bonuses soon. It will certainly help with some of the wedding stuff. Pretty cool!

I think spring has finally sprung!

It is absolutely gorgeous here. Sun is shining, it’s 22 degrees, and the whole weekend is supposed to be wonderful. I can’t wait. I’m sitting here in my office, with my window open, so I can smell the fresh spring air (too bad my building is next to a propane place, takes away from the “fresh” part). Only 90 minutes and I’m outta here for a wonderful weekend of relaxation and fun!

Nej is coming up tomorrow, so we are going to make the most of the weather and go for a long walk. In the evening, we’re meeting up with a couple girls for a 30th birthday bash for one of them (a girl I used to work with). A girls night out consisting of dancing, good company, and yummy drinks, sounds good to me!

This made me happy!

I had a massage last night and my massage therapist noticed that I’d lost weight. Which I thought was pretty cool! As of today, I’ve lost about 8.5 pounds since New Year’s, so I’m happy with that. It’s a slow process, but that’s okay. I think I am more likely to keep it off if I lose it slowly and sensibly without totally depriving myself.

That just made me happy because she’s someone who only sees me once a month and doesn’t know I have been trying to lose weight, so it made my day that she noticed.

Weekend was relaxing.

My weekend was quite good, I didn’t really do too much. Yesterday, was my grandmother’s 79th birthday, so CT, my mom, and I took her out for lunch after church. Other than that, my weekend was pretty quiet. Smokey is still doing well, we reduced his meds on the weekend, he’s down to 1 pill per day now for the next 2 weeks. If he’s still doing well in 2 weeks, then we can stop the medication completely and just keep him on the good food. I am so glad that he’s been doing better lately! He seems even more happy now than before this whole ordeal. Makes me wonder if maybe he had some crystals in his urine for awhile which was causing him pain before it actually blocked up.

Koby is still doing well also. He has not had another seizure since Thursday, so we’re happy about that. He may/will likely get more in the future, but since it’s been 4 days since his last one, then he is likely not going to be one of those dogs that gets cluster seizures (more than 1 per 24 hours).

This coming week at work is going to be a busy one since I have a big project due on Friday. And I am going to be out of town all day tomorrow meeting with a client. Good thing I have a massage booked for tomorrow evening, I’m going to need it!

Hitch-hiker has not called me since Friday. I stopped by on my way home to drop off the things he forgot on his desk and to pick up his keys. So that should be all I hear from him. It’s so nice to have my rides to work alone back! I never realized how much I liked the peace and quiet on my way to work until I started giving him rides. And now I don’t have to wait for him outside his house every morning anymore, it’s great!

Pet updates and hitchikers getting canned

So the results of Smokey’s urinalysis were very good. She said his urine was very clear, no blood, and they had to look really hard to find anything. They did find some very small crystals, but when they compared it to the urinalysis they did when this first happened, it is like night and day. His urine now has a pH of 6 (whereas before it was 8) and it has a very low struvite crystal count now (whereas before it had a score of 4+ which is the highest score they give).

From here, the vet recommended keeping him on the good food indefinitely, which is fine by me. I’ll do whatever I can to give him the best chance of not having a relapse. We’re going to continue with the medication for another 2 weeks (at a reduced dose) and if after 2 weeks, he’s still fine, then I can stop the medication. If he has no more problems, she wants to see him again in 3 months. Sounds quite positive. She couldn’t really give me any indication of whether he will relapse, nobody knows that, but I am hoping for the best. If he does have another blockage, then we may need to consider the surgery, but I won’t worry about that unless he gets worse again. So far, so good.

As far as Koby goes, I haven't heard from my mom yet this morning, so I am assuming he has not had any more seizures. He has to be under close observation, so I hope he's okay! It was very scary for him as well as my family. At least now that they know what to expect, my mom won't think she's watching him die if he has another seizure. She was so scared yesterday, it was awful. She thought that by the time we got to the vet's office, he was going to be dead. But, apparently epilepsy is somewhat common in goldens of his age. I wish she would have known that before, then she might not have been quite so hysterical!

Oh, someone here at work got canned yesterday. And I am really happy about it because it was my hitchhiker! I’m sure I’ve complained about him on here in the past, he was a mootch and I didn’t like him at all. It was like pulling teeth just to get him to chip in on gas money since I have him a ride to and from work everyday. Took me almost 4 months to get some money from him. And he was never on time either, I had to wait outside his house for him every dang morning, which made us late quite often. So, I am quite relieved that he is no longer working here!!! I hated giving him rides all the time. He called me last night twice. I didn’t answer, but he left a message. He wants me to call him so we can arrange a time for me to go to pick up his office keys. What a guy! Like it’s MY responsibility to go to his place to pick up the keys that he forgot to give back. I guess I could tell him to put them in an envelope and put it through my mailslot at my house. He lives just a block away, so I think he could walk to my place to drop them off. Man, that guy drives me nuts.

One more thing about this guy, yesterday morning (so before he got fired), he told me that he needs to give a girl in our office some money. I asked what he owes her money for, and apparently she goes out for lunch a lot and always offers to pick him up something. I guess he has never given her any money and now he figured he owes her $100! I was shocked! I guess she’s not getting any money now since he’s gone!!! I couldn’t believe that. If someone offered to pick me up some food, and I didn’t have any money, I would have made sure to give them money the very next day. This guy let this go on for months and racked up a huge tab!!! I would be pissed if I were her, actually, I would have stopped offering to get him food after he didn’t pay me the first or second time! Sheesh, some people! I am so glad that he no longer works here!

EDIT 10:35 am

The hitchhiker just called me AGAIN, this time at work. He wants me to stop by his place on my way home tonight to give him a couple of things he forgot on his desk and so I can take his office keys. I'll just stop by on my way home, since I thought about it and I would rather not tell him where I live. This way, one 5-minute stop at his place, and then this will all be over. I can understand why he called me, he probably considers me the closest to a friend that he has here. I'm just glad I don't have to deal with him any more after today!

I’m beginning to think my family is cursed…

So I go to pick up my mom at lunch today since she was going to come with me to Smokey’s appointment, and when I get there, she is hysterical. I guess about a half hour prior, her dog Koby (4 year old golden retriever) was barking at the mailman like he does everyday, and then he started shaking, vomited, pooping uncontrollably, and thrashing around. She said it was the scariest moment of her life; she thought she was watching her doggie die. She started screaming and luckily my dad and brothers were home, so they carried him to the van and rushed him to the vets office. So, mom and I went to get Smokey and headed out there as well.

Apparently, Koby is the right age and breed for adult-onset epilepsy. They diagnose epilepsy by ruling out other things, so they took some blood and did some tests for any kidney or liver damage. I just heard back from mom, and apparently there is no damage to his organs, the vet said he has “beautiful blood”. He did have really low phosphorous levels in his blood, which is classic for after a seizure. So, now we just have to watch him really closely for the next few days to see if he has any more. Very scary.

As far as Smokey goes, they were not able to get a urine sample because there was not enough urine is his bladder. So, I left him there for the afternoon and they are going to try again to get a sample later. I am going to call back in an hour or two and see if they were able to get one and then I’ll pick him up after work. Once they get a sample, they are going to check to see if there are any crystals in his urine, so I should get the results when I pick him up.

Oh, and on top of all that, my parents van had a flat tire when they came out of the vets office. Sheesh. What a day. Actually, what a few weeks!!! First I thought I was going to lose Smokey, and then today I thought we were going to lose Koby! I’m beginning to think my family is cursed!

150 and counting...

As of today, it is exactly 150 days until my wedding! Hard to believe that I am about halfway between when I got engaged and when I will be getting married. I think I’m in pretty good shape as far as the planning goes, still have lots to do, but there is also lots that has already been accomplished. One thing I need to get on is finding shoes. Ideally I would like to have them a few months ahead so I can break them in a bit and I will need them for my first dress fitting, which will be in late June/early July. I haven’t seen any that I like yet. I’m sure I’ll find some, just have to keep looking.

So tomorrow is Smokey’s follow-up appointment with the vet. I am looking forward to it because I really hope that the outcome is good and that the urinalysis will show that he has no more crystals. I will let you know how it goes.

Relaxing weekend

I had a really good long weekend. I didn’t do too much and it was great. Friday and Saturday I just relaxed, did a little cleaning, did some exercising, and that’s about it. On Sunday, it was CT’s 29th birthday, so our easter dinner was a combined easter dinner and birthday party. CT’s parents came as well, so it was a lot of fun. It was the first time CT’s parents met my brothers and my grandmother and it went really well. My grandmother must have really liked them because she has never been that nice to people she just met, I was quite pleased.

So now it’s back to work. Why can’t every work week be only 4 days long?

On the Smokey front, he is still doing well. I am taking him back to the vet on Thursday for a check up and they are going to do another urine analysis where they look at his urine under the microscope so they can see if there are any crystals still in his urine. Hopefully there will not be any! He’s been on the good food for over 2 weeks now, so it should be helping to break up and prevent the crystals. If the vet thinks he’s okay after that visit on Thursday, then I think I can finally relax and put this all behind us. Of course, he’s still at risk to re-block since he got it once, but if I keep him on the good food for the rest of this life, that will give him the best chance of it not happening again. What a scary ordeal!

Oh yes, and I am quite dissapointed that the leafs are playing golf early this year. Sheesh.

Since a few of you asked…

The ipod I got is an ipod nano 8GB. I charged it up last night and put some of my music on, and it’s great! I really like it so far! It organizes all my music for me so I can play by genre, artist, album, whatever. I’m sure it will take me the weekend to figure out all it can do. I am also going to see if I can find any good deals on ebay for accessories. Too fun!

So glad tomorrow is a holiday, I need some time to catch up on my sleep. I think that now that I am pretty sure Smokey is going to be okay, I am starting to relax, so the last 2 weeks of very little sleep is starting to catch up with me.

This weekend I have 2 easter dinners to attend, so that’s not going to be good for my weight loss efforts! Oh well, I will try my best and then start again fresh on Monday. Today is also a potluck at work, but I will try my best to be good. I’ll have to make sure I exercise lots this weekend to make up for all the food I’m going to eat. I find it relatively easy to stay on track when I am planning and cooking my meals, but during potlucks and family dinners, it’s not so easy because there is always mountains of fabulous food.

Enjoyable day off yesterday

I was in Toronto yesterday. I took mom and CT to a leafs game as a birthday present for both of them. What an exciting game! The leafs won and it’s a good thing too, otherwise their playoff hope would be over. I am losing my voice a little from all the screaming I did last night. It was great! Before the game, we met up with CT’s cousin (the best man) and his wife for dinner. It was a good time!

We also went to Costco on our way to Toronto and I decided to buy myself an ipod. I have been wanting one for awhile now, and I was able to sell my old mp3 player to my mom, so I used that money towards my ipod. I can’t wait until I get home tonight and I can charge it up and figure out how to use it ;) Eventually, I would like to get one of those speaker/stereo systems where you can plug your ipod into. I saw one at Costco where you can use your ipod with it, and it also has radio and plays cds. Something like that would be nice. It will be awhile before I can afford that though, so I have some time to decide what I want ;)

I was a little worried about leaving Smokey home alone for 12 hours yesterday, but when we got home, he was as happy as could be. No problems at all. The vets office called yesterday just to see how he’s doing, so I am going to call them back today to let them know he is doing great! I think I can finally start to relax. He’s been home for almost a week now, and seems to be back to his normal self. He is still going small amounts at a time, but he is no longer struggling at all, he is in and out of the litterbox in 10 to 15 seconds. I am so glad that he’s doing so well! He’s still at higher risk to re-block for about another week or so (of course he is at risk to re-block for his whole life), but I think this is all behind us. I will make sure to keep him on the special urinary tract food for the rest of this life, so hopefully this never comes back!

My little prince

Smokey and I had a little sleep together yesterday afternoon. I am so glad to have him back.

In other news, I did my tax return yesterday, and I'm getting a refund that is within $20 or so of Smokey's vet bills! I thought that was pretty awesome! I was just going to be happy to break even (since I had some rental income for the first few months of 2006), but I guess all the money I put into the house and all the money I contrbuted to RRSPs meant I get a nice sizeable refund so I can pay for all the vet bills for Smokey. Yay!